The Late Fame of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt
By Dr. Lutz Wohlrab

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, who was largely unknown for a long time, has gained late recognition in recent years. In 2016, her gallery Chert Lüdde introduced her work at Art Basel, after which Adam Szymczyk invited her to participate in documenta 14. In the years that followed, her works were exhibited across Europe, including in Malmö, Riga, Oslo, London, Paris, and Tirana. Highlights included exhibitions at the Albertinum in Dresden (2018), the Lindenau Museum where she was awarded the Gerhard Altenbourg Prize (2021), and the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, where she received the Hannah Höch Prize (2022). In 2023, DAS MINSK – Kunsthaus in Potsdam dedicated a comprehensive retrospective to her work.
In 1981, she exhibited at the S:t Petri Gallery in Lund, Sweden, but due to restrictions imposed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR), she was unable to travel to the exhibition. However, her artistic ideas, communicated through mail, effortlessly crossed borders and formed the foundation of the current exhibition at the aKonzept gallery.
In the art of the GDR, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt was a unique figure. Her typewritten art, or “typewritings,” gained worldwide distribution through the mail art network. Born in 1932 in Wurzen, she moved to Kleinmachnow in 1950 to complete her secondary education and study philosophy in Berlin. In 1954, she met the young artist Robert Rehfeldt, whom she married the following year. In 1972, she presented her typewriter graphics for the first time in Wrocław. She liberated words from their semantic meanings and developed series of images using punctuation marks and special characters. Her works addressed themes such as environmental pollution, the dangers of war, and the pros and cons of the information society. After 1990, she ceased producing art. Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt passed away on February 26, 2024, at the age of 92. Her precise and imaginative typewritten graphics continue to fascinate viewers and collectors worldwide.
From February 14 to April 12, 2025, the Galerie aKonzept & Raphaël Lévy will showcase around thirty works by the artist, created between 1972 and 1980. An exhibition catalog will also be published to accompany the event.